Nuts & Bolts Interaction Design When I was given the opportunity to write a book about designing Website interface elements, I thought; how does one fill 250 pages with dictums about Menus and radio buttons? Serious designers are supposed to be concerned with big picture aesthetics - not widgets. Right? Then I started looking at how people use everyday things, like cars, radios, telephones; even how people operate their own homes (where do we expect to find a light switch when entering a room?). The essence of design is evident in the well placed, carefully considered widget. By looking at how people use the nuts and bolts of virtual tools, we can uncover a great deal more about design than by focusing on big picture aesthetics. Designing Website Interface Elements is about understanding the Web, and its audience, by looking at the points where the two intersect - the working interactive elements. There is no shortage of Web-design-for-designers books; filled with examples of slick sites that look good in print. Conversely, books that do diligence to real usability, are aptly targeted to information architects and project managers. This book is written for designers, and non-technical people who want to better grasp interaction design for the Web — for people who may lack the vocabulary and background of information architects and programers. Shelf Life Finally, Designing Website Interface Elements is on the shelves. I wrote it quickly, knowing Web evolution is faster than the printing cycle. Yet, it's likely that my prescriptions in early 2002 may seem antiquated by 2003. Hopefully, readers will be left with a strong enough foundation in Web interaction design to transcend the limmitation and shelf life of my examples.